The Voyager War
by Jed Rhodes
Summary: Star Trek Crossover: The Doctor ends up on the USS Voyager, just as they run into some of his old enemies...
1. Arrival

--  
Ensign Callahan took out his tricorder and scanned the blue box.

It was nine feet tall, bright blue, and it seemed to be giving off some sort of chronoton energy. He tapped his combadge to give a full report.

"Callahan to Tuvok," he said. "The temporal distortion appears to be emanating from a blue box, in Cargo Bay Two."

"Can you be more specific as to the nature of the object?" Tuvok asked, and Callahan had to suppress the urge to sigh.

"It's nine feet tall, bright blue, it has what appears to be a lamp on top of it, and it has a sign in… in English!" Callahan stopped in his tracks. "There's no way that's possible!"

"What does the sign say?" Tuvok asked.

"It says… 'Police Public Call Box, sir," Callahan said. "What does it mean?"

"Seven of Nine is on her way," Tuvok replied. "Keep guard on the … 'Police Public Call Box,' until she arrives."

"Aye sir," Callahan said, taking his phaser out. This was too weird. How could something with an English sign be here?

A moment later, something clicked on the box. He stepped back and aimed his phaser at it, warily. Then, one of the doors opened and a man popped his head out of the door – a young man, apparently human, with long brown hair and sideburns.

"Trust me Martha," he was saying. "The Federation of the 24th century were a much nicer bunch than the second Earth Empire…"

"I hope so!" a female voice said from behind him. "They put me in bloody chains!"

"Well," the Doctor said amicably. "I'm sure they didn't mean anything by it. Oh, hello!" he said, noticing Callahan. The bemused Ensign did nothing. "You must be the welcoming committee!" the man continued, oblivious to the Ensigns befuddlement. "I'm the Doctor, and this," indicating a younger, dark skinned and quite pretty woman, "is Martha Jones."

"Hi!" she said, waving awkwardly. Callahan felt the absurd urge to wave back, but then aimed his phaser at the 'Doctor' who appeared to be the man in charge.

"Oh, there's no need for that," the Doctor aid, smiling. "I'm quite friendly. So is Martha, mind you, not saying she isn't."

"Oi," Martha said, nudging his ribs. "Sorry, he always confuses people."

"Well," he countered, looking at the walls, and noticing the Borg alcove. A look of deadly seriousness came upon his face.

"Oh dear," he said. "That's not good."

"What is that?" Martha asked. The Doctor didn't reply, but instead grabbed Callahan and looked him dead in the eye.

"What," he said after a moment, "is a Borg alcove doing on a Federation ship?"

"I require it," came a steady female voice. Seven of Nine entered the room, and Callahan could not suppress his sigh of relief – she would sort these two nutters out.

The Doctor stared at the ex-drone for a long moment, and she stared at him. Then she looked at the blue box. Then back at the Doctor.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I might ask you the same question," he said, warily.

"You know her?" Martha said, shocked.

"Vaguely," the Doctor said, but didn't elaborate. "Now, you might want to take me to Captain Janeway. I have a bad feeling that she'll need my help, very, very soon…"


	2. Exterminate!

Seven of Nine burst onto the bridge. Captain Kathryn Janeway looked up, to see that she wasn't alone. A man wearing a dark brown suit, grey shirt and red tie, complete with long brown coat was with her, as well as a woman wearing a red leather jacket.

The man instantly started pressing commands into a console.

"Who are you?" Janeway asked, motioning to Tuvok, who nodded, and placed a hand on his phaser. When the man didn't respond, the woman smiled.

"Hi, I'm Martha Jones - and he's the Doctor."

'The Doctor' nodded at them, then continued. Janeway motioned to Tuvok again, but then Seven of Nine held up her hand.

"It is vital the Doctor be allowed to continue his work," she said. Janeway was baffled, but Seven would never have plpaced her trust in anyone unworthy, so she nodded to Tuvok, who backed down.

"Captain," Harry Kim said, "he's enhancing the shield grid. It's fifty – no sixty – Captain, it's a full one hundred times more effective than it was."

"Well," Captain Janeway said, turning to him, and smiling. "I'd say thank you, but I don't even know who you are…"

The Doctor turned and the look in his eyes was so serious that she stepped back in shock.

"I am the Doctor," he said. "A Time Lord from the dead planet Gallifrey, near Galactic Centre, over nine hundred years old, last of the Time Lords, and not in the mood for anything. If you want to know more I suggest you ask your resident Borg."

He turned back to the console, and even Martha looked shocked. Janeway looked at her bridge crew, then spoke softly.

"Senior staff assembly," she said.

--

"Who is he?" Janeway asked Seven. The entire senior staff looked at her, and she responded slowly.

"The Borg encountered a life form known as 'the Doctor' over ten thousand years into the future," she began. "He was in charge of the fleet of a planet near Galactic Centre – small, minimal inhabitants. He was known as the Doctor."

"The future?" the EMH said.

"Yes," Seven nodded. "The collective was testing its temporal equipment. The theory was, that if future technology was assimilated then returned to the present, then the collective would become more powerful – assimilate the future to conquer the past."

She paused.

"The attempt failed, thanks to the individual known as the Doctor," she continued. "He was briefly assimilated, however he resisted and used the link to short out the Borg fleets systems. He destroyed them from the inside out. His physical parameters do not conform to the known ones for the Doctor; however, it is known that his species possess the ability to regenerate their physical forms."

"But that doesn't tell us who he is, or what he wants," B'Elanna Torres pointed out.

"The 'Time Lords', as his species referred to themselves, were the inhabitants of that world," Seven said. "They were immensely powerful, capable of time travel, erasing entire worlds from existence, and otherwise extremely impressive feats of solar and temporal engineering. Following the initial failure to assimilate them in the future, an attempt was made to locate them in the present, however the world was dead."

"Dead?" the EMH put in.

"No life signs. There was no sign of a civilisation," Seven clarified.

"So he is the last of the Time Lords?" Janeway asked.

"Yes," Seven explained. "Rumour among some time travel capable species, such as the Krenim indicate a form of temporal conflict – known almost universally as the Time War – took place. It destroyed the Time Lords and their enemies, and erased them from history. Apparently, the 'Doctor' is the exception."

"Poor guy," Tom Paris commented.

"What's he doing here?" Chakotay asked.

"I imagine that he is attempting to assist us," Seven said. "He is known by countless species – species 15543 – the Draconian Empire – know him as the Ka Faraq Gatri. Species 3356, the so called, 'Ice Warriors of Mars'…"

"Mars?" Ensign Kim put in.

"They were former residents of Mars – their species relocated thousands of years before humanity discovered space travel."

"You know all this about him?" Captain Janeway asked.

"Many species know of 'The Doctor', Captain," Seven said. "If he is aiding us, then there must be some grave peril awaiting us."

"What kind of peril?" Paris asked.

"That is the question," Seven commented.

--

"Doctor, what's going on?" Martha asked. "What's happening?"

"This is the USS Voyager," the Doctor told her. "A ship stranded seventy thousand light years from Earth."

Martha looked at the crew working on the bridge.

"They're stuck?" she asked.

"They get home," the Doctor whispered. "I wanted to meet them, so I went to a reunion of the survivors. Imagine my surprise when they recognised me from the off."

"What happened?" Martha asked.

"They reminisced with me," the Doctor said, "and I didn't protest, because they told me something scary. So I looked for them – but I never found them until today."

"What's going to happen?" Martha asked, but right at that moment, Captain Janeway and the rest of the senior staff came out of the briefing room.

"Alright Doctor," Janeway said. "Tell me what is going on."

"All I can tell you is that you need to go to Red Alert," the Doctor said. "Because there's something out there."

"What?" Janeway asked. At that moment, a proximity alert initiated. Tuvok checked his scans.

"A vessel is approaching," he reported. "At high warp."

"Red alert," the Doctor said.

"Belay that, hail them," Janeway snapped. "This is my bridge,"

"Trust me," the Doctor said grimly, "they're not interested in anything you have to say."

"What are they?" Seven asked.

"Species 044," the Doctor said grimly. Seven blanched.

"Captain, I concur with the Doctor's approach," she said. "Red alert and raising shields would be advisable."

"They're in visual range," Tuvok reported.

"On screen," Janeway ordered. A circular ship appeared on the viewscreen.

"It's armed to the teeth," Ensign Kim reported. "Missile launchers, proton cannons, phaser banks, everything."

"It's designed to kill," the Doctor said grimly. "Its sole purpose."

"What is it Doctor?" Martha asked.

"Relic of a bygone age," the Doctor replied.

"Who are species 044?" Janeway asked Seven.

"Extremely hostile, they're assimilation would have given the Borg better adaptive shielding," Seven said. "However, they proved almost impossible to assimilate. Only thirty nine were ever taken alive, and only seventeen of those were still alive in the collective at the time of my disconnection."

"What were they called?" Tom Paris asked.

"They referred to themselves as Daleks," Seven said coldly.

"They're hailing," Ensign Kim said.

"On screen," Captain Janeway said. An image of a bridge, with dozens of travel machines like large bronze tanks gliding about, filled the screen. A larger, red coloured tank like machine filled the screen, and a blue eyestalk looked Janeway directly in the eye.

"We are the Daleks," it said, its voice an electronic screech. "Prepare to be exterminated!"


	3. Null Space

"I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway, of the Federation Starship Voyager," Janeway began.

"Irrelevant!" the Dalek barked. "You are an inferior life form, you must be exterminated!"

"Reasoning with them is impossible, Captain," Seven of Nine said. "They are extremely hostile."

"I agree," the Doctor said. "They are cold blooded, and totally ruthless. The best thing you can do is run now, while you can."

"Incorrect," the Dalek said. "The best thing you can do is die."

With that, the communication ended, and the Doctor quickly went to work at his console – but far too late, as the ship juddered. The Doctor swore and took out a small, pen-like device.

"Shields down to – twenty five percent, Captain," Tuvok reported, his voice almost strained with what was obviously hidden surprise. "They are preparing to fire again."

"Return fire!" Janeway yelled.

"Unable to comply, Captain," Tuvok said. "Weapons are down."

"Helm control is offline," Paris reported.

"Captain," Kim said from his station, "several dozen small vehicles are disengaging from the Dalek vessel, and… they're heading for Voyager!"

"Of course," the Doctor said, snarling, as he went too work frantically with the pen-device.

"What are you doing Doctor?" Martha asked.

"I'd quite like to know that as well," Janeway snapped.

"He's attempting to access deflector control," Kim said. "He's… I don't believe this, he's accessing – another dimension?!"

The view screen, which had been filled with the sight of the Dalek ship, suddenly came to nothing. Literally nothing. Then, slowly, a light shone, and then, impossibly, stars came into being. They twinkled – but there was something off. It took them a moment to realize it, but there was something wrong with this space.

"It's in negative," Tom Paris said. "Space is white!"

"Fascinating," Tuvok said.

"Well that worked better than I expected," the Doctor said, smiling. "I think."

--

"What the hell did you do?!" Janeway yelled. "Where are we?!"

"Null space," the Doctor said, smiling.

"Repeat that," Seven of Nine said.

"I said, Null Space," the Doctor repeated. "Sub dimension. Hides us from the Daleks."

"Just who the hell do you think you are?!" Janeway yelled at him. "How dare you do this on my ship without my consent?!"

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor pointed out. "'Consent' doesn't factor in."

"You're an arrogant son of a bitch, I'll give you that," Janeway said.

The Doctor looked at her for a moment in shock, then inexplicably grinned at her, manically.

"You know," he said, "that is exactly what Jim said."

"Jim," Janeway repeated. "Jim who?"

"Kirk," the Doctor smiled. "James Kirk."

Janeway blanked him for a moment. Martha walked over to the Doctor.

"You mind telling me what's up with her?" she asked in a hush, so the Starfleet crew couldn't hear her.

"Kirk was a celebrity, a historical legend," the Doctor said in the same hushed tone. "Like telling you I met Nelson. And I did," he added, smiling.

"You can't have met Kirk," Janeway said. "That is totally impossible."

"Not really," the Doctor said. "It was a while ago, mind…"

--

**86 years ago.**

"Spock, tell me what the hell is going on!" Kirk yelled, as the bridge rocked again.

"If you would just listen to me," the man known as the Doctor said, sighing, his scarf trailing behind him, "this would not be a problem."

"Shut up!" Kirk snapped. "What are those things?"

"Unknown, Captain," Spock said, at the same time the Doctor yelled "Carthantian Warship!"

Kirk turned to him, bemused.

"How do you know what they are?" he asked.

"Well," the Doctor said, smiling. "I'm clever."

"What is a Carthantian warship?" Spock asked.

"Well," the Doctor said, whipping out his sonic screwdriver, "I'm very glad you asked me that question…"

--

**Now.**

"That is totally impossible," Janeway repeated. "You'd be... what, 90? 100?"

"903, actually," the Doctor smiled. "Give or take a century or six."

"Fascinating," Tuvok said.

"Yeah well," Tom Paris said from the CONN, "it doesn't tell us what to do about the pepper pots."

The Doctor turned to stare at him, and the rest of the crew looked perplexed. Tuvok raised an eyebrow.

"The Daleks," Tom added. "The shape, it's a bit…"

"They are the most deadly creatures in existence," the Doctor said. "Trust me; you do not want to insult them."

"Then what do we wanna do?" Ensign Kim asked. The Doctor smiled at him.  
"You listen to every word I say from now until I stop talking," the Doctor said, perfectly sincere.


	4. The Dalek War

Martha had never seen the Doctor like this in her life, although she hadn't known him very long – but she had thought she knew him. This Doctor was more authoritative, more powerful. Maybe he was putting it on, she thought, but no.

"Ok," Janeway said. "So start talking."

"Null space is a parallel universe, rather like Subspace or E-Space," the Doctor began. "Now, we can't just stay here and wait for the Daleks to leave – we have to figure out a way to beat them."

"Judging from the Borgs encounters with the Daleks, that would be very difficult," Seven of Nine commented.

"_Weeell_, you would say that," the Doctor said, giving her a hard stare at the mention of the Borg. "The Borg have no imagination, so you've got nothin' else to say. No, what I'm suggesting is a little humanity – free thinking. You, Ensign – what's your name?" he added, pointing at Harry.

"Harry Kim," the bewildered Ensign replied.

"Right, Harry Kim," the Doctor smiled. "I need you to run through your sensor readings, find out every weakness you can. You, security guy…"

"Tuvok," Tuvok said stiffly.

"Fine, whatever," the Doctor said, coming up to the Vulcans console. "Mind if I just do this?"

He aimed his Sonic Screwdriver into the console, and a light buzzing noise emitted from it – and then the console went off.

"What have you done?" Janeway yelled.

"Don't panic Captain," the Doctor said, holding up a hand. "Don't panic… I'll fix it…"

He changed the setting on his Screwdriver, and suddenly the console lit up – in Gallifreyan symbols.

"Perfect," the Doctor muttered. Then he pressed a few of the new buttons.

"What are you doing?" Chakotay asked, looking at the symbols with great interest. "These seem like some sort of alien language, but the translators…"

"Gallifreyan is more complicated than your language translator can handle," the Doctor told them. "Sometimes I think it's more complicated than _my_ language translator can handle..."

"Well," Martha muttered, "I can't read it."

"Enlighten us, Doctor, what does the panel say?" Tuvok asked.

"W_eeeell,_basically, it says your ship is knackered," the Doctor said, pressing about five buttons at once. "My fault, sorry, thought I fixed the shields up... sorry, just take a minute..."

"You are insane," Seven pointed out to him.

"You think I haven't told him that?" Martha asked.

"Anyway," the Doctor said, pressing more buttons. "Why don't you lot go do something interesting like figure a way out of this mess, while I try to fix this damn console..."

Janeway crossed her arms, and glared daggers until the Doctor looked at her.

"Nobody," she said, calmly, "dismisses me from my bridge."

--

"Doctor, you still haven't told me what happens," Martha said.

They were both being escorted to engineering by two security officers, including Ensign Callahan.

"You do not want to know, Martha, believe me," he replied. "Rest assured, this is only going to get worse."

"How much worse can it get…?" Martha asked. "I mean, Captain Janeway hates us, the rest of them don't trust us… hard to believe she likes you in the future."

"I don't know if she does," the Doctor said. "She wasn't at the reunion."

"Oh?" Martha asked. "What happened?"

"She died," the Doctor said, tight lipped. He did not elaborate, and Martha kept quiet. But then, the Doctor screamed in delight as the motley little crew walked into engineering. He ran right up to the console and sighed in delight.

"Haven't seen one of these babies since the Great Museum of Arbotia!" he yelled. "Mark Six Warp Cores, rare as heck..."

Martha shrugged at the engineer, a pale woman with forehead ridges, who looked vaguely as if she would murder the Doctor where he stood. The engineer walked up to the Doctor.

"D'you mind if I ask who the hell you are?" she said, angrily.

"The Doctor," the Doctor replied. "I just came round for a gander..."

"We got kicked off of the bridge and sent down here," Martha translated. The Doctor started pressing buttons, haphazardly.

"Hey, stop that!" the engineer said.

"It's too much fun!" the Doctor yelled. "Hang on..."

He pressed a long, complicated sequence into the console, and all of a sudden, the entire room started shaking.

"Hang on, that's not right…" the Doctor said, and he quickly pressed in another sequence of commands. A moment later, then entire ship stopped shaking.

_"Engineering, what just happened_?" came Janeway's voice, infuriated.

"Some guy came down here," the engineer replied, "and he started…"

"_Never mind,"_ Janeway said. "_Brown suit, female companion?"_

"Yes," the engineer said.

_"The Doctor,"_ Janeway told her. "_Best not to worry, we're done worrying up here. Doesn't do any good…"_

"Quite right," the Doctor said, "but… if you would just check your screens, please, Captain," he quickly punched up a view of the outside, "and tell me what you see."

Janeway fell silent for a moment.

_"My God,"_ she said at long last.

"One way of putting it," the Doctor smiled.

_"We're…"_ Janeway said. "_We're… we're_ home_…"_

The Doctor wasn't smiling anymore.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Captain," he said, pressing a series of buttons in. He slaved the bridge view-screen to the one on his console, and then zoomed in on subsector twelve, zero, twelve.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, "but this is not your home. This will be your home in one hundred and fifty years time..."

And he stepped back from the console, allowing Martha and B'Elanna Torres to see a fleet of five hundred Dalek saucer craft, locked in mortal combat against hundreds of what looked like advanced Federation starships.

"This," the Doctor said sadly, "is the Dalek War."


	5. Oops

"So you take us from one bad situation to another!" Janeway stormed at the Doctor. He held his hands up to his ears.

They were on the bridge once more, the Doctor having bolted up there after his pronouncement. Martha had run after him, breathless, heart pounding. What she needed, she thought ruefully, was a rest.

"Nobody ever mentioned how shouty you got…" he said. "You, Harry – make a note of that, I'll want to know how shouty she is, it's important..."

Harry Kim nodded before he realised what the Doctor had said, then he frowned, but Janeway ignored it.

"You know," Janeway added, still fuming, "you almost remind me of Q…"

The Doctor looked totally shocked for a moment. Then he burst out grinning.

"You know Q?" he said. "My goodness…"

"_You_ know Q?!" Janeway yelled. Martha looked from one to another, in desperation.

"Ok, so you're both Bond fans," she said.

"No, no, no," the Doctor said, turning to Martha with a grin, "not _that_ Q – although incidentally, I built that jetpack for him, he didn't get the antigrav field right – _Q!_ The extra dimensional being!"

"No idea who you mean," Martha said after a moment. "Sorry."

"Ah, right, sorry, forgot you were new," the Doctor smiled. "I'll introduce you sometimes, he's great at canasta."

"So you aren't Q?" Chakotay asked.

"Pah," the Doctor said, waving his hand, "No, mate, I'm _not_ Q. If I had Q's power, believe me, I'd have done a lot of things differently…"

A haunted look came into his eyes, one which the Captain ignored.

"Well you're sure acting like him," Janeway said, infuriated. "Meddling with our lives, throwing us hundreds of years into the future…"

"Story of my life," Martha muttered grimly, mildly miffed as the 'new' comment..

"Captain," a voice came from OPS, and Janeway turned to regard Harry Kim. "We're being hailed."

"On viewer," Janeway said, and she turned.

To regard a very familiar face.

"Captain," the EMH smiled at her from the screen. "An honour to see you once more."

"_DOCTOR_?!?!" Janeway yelled. He certainly looked like a Mark I EMH, but he was in… well, it looked like a Starfleet Captains uniform. It was red, with four pins, but the delta was different, and the shirt was block solid red, rather like the traditional uniform of Kirks day.

"Doctor!" the Doctor – the brown suited one by her side that is – grinned. "How's it going, Joe?"

"Doctor," the EMH – Joe? – said. "How nice to finally see you again. It's been too long."

"Don't tell me I didn't pop in again," the Doctor said, almost as if in self admonishment.

"Once in a while, but you… had a facelift," the EMH on screen said. "Anyway," he added, "this is no time to chat. We need your help, as you well know…"

"Yes, I do," the Doctor said. "Right, you know the sequences."

"Yes I do," the EMH said, as the Doctor ran to a console. Janeway looked from one to another in desperation.

"Would someone mind telling me what's going on?!" she yelled.

The EMH looked at her, and there was a sort of pain on his face, the sort of pain that Janeway half recognised.

"I missed you," he said, smiling sadly. "You were a good Captain."

Janeway looked at him increduously, but then he Doctor said, his tone one of warning; "Joe." The EMH nodded sadly, and gave out a series of long numbers, which the Doctor proceeded to enter into the console. A moment later, Tuvok raised an eyebrow in semi-shock.

"Captain, our shields have just become thirty times more efficient," he reported, and he almost sounded surprised. Almost.

"That's the point," the Doctor said. "Look, we're in a war zone, and they need me."

"Why do you need us?!" Janeway countered, angrily. "What possible reason could you have…?"

"I need you because I needed you," the Doctor said, smiling.

"What?" Janeway asked.

"In the future – your future, my past – I met your crew atr a reunion," the Doctor said. "And they talked about this encounter. Trouble was, once they realised I didn't know what they were talking about, they stopped – round about here in the story."

"A temporal paradox," Tuvok said. "You have set in motion events that were already destined to happen."

"Yup," the Doctor confirmed with a nod. Janeway massaged her temple.

"I hate time travel," she said. "So everything up 'til now you knew what was gonna happen…?"  
"But now I don't," the Doctor confirmed. "And it's more fun that way."

"Tell me you have a plan," Martha asked the Doctor. He looked at her, scandalised.

"'Course I've got a plan!" he said, running to Harry Kims station. "Just need some cooking utensils and my special party hat…"

Janeway exchanged looks with Chakotay.

"A joke," the Doctor added. "Now, you have a lovely delfector dish, Captain," he added. "And I wopnder what would happen if I did this…"

"Captain," Tuvok said, "he is creating a temporal rift near the Dalek fleet…"

"Too late, they're coming for us!" Tom Paris said.

"Initiate evasive maneuvors!" Janeway ordered. "Keep us away from them, Tom!"

"Martha!" the Doctor yelled. "Get down to the TARDIS, and open her. Captain, get your engineers to connect the TARDIS power supply to youre ship – it should give us enough power to get where we're going…"

Martha ran, and Harry Kim, surplus to requirement for the moment, followed. The Doctor kept fiddling with the console, eventually taking his Sonic Screwdrive rout to continue his meddling. It was all Tom Paris could do to keep them in one piece. Suddenly…

"Ah ha!" the Doctor yelled. "Martha did it!"

"Did what?" Janeway asked.

"She linked us to the TARDIS – the entire Dalek fleet is going to Borg Space, circa the year 2375!" the Doctor yelled.

"What if the Borg assimilate Dalek technology?" Seven of Nine asked.

"You said it yourself, "the Doctor grinned smugly. "Only a handful ever allowed themselves to be captured alive. They'll kill _loads_ of Borg - aboslutely yonks of 'em - then they'll self destruct. Sides, Dalek tech is actually quite primitive compared to some stuff the Borg have assimilated over the years…"

"Captain," Tuvok reported, "the Dalek fleet has been swallowed, and the temporal anomaly has gone."

Janeway looked impressed, but there was still one question.

"How are you gonna get us back home?" she asked.

"_Home_?!" the Doctor said. "Oh, I'm not sending you home," he added, "I'll send you back where I found you. You've got things to do, Kapitan…"

He smiled, and then another rift opened. The Doctor quickly sent a goodbye message to Joe – the EMH – and then Voyager was gone…

--

Borg Cube 22573634/45143 was patrolling sector four-six-one-G, for the 1184724th time in its long, comparitively productive existence as a Borg ship, when something happened that had never happened before.

A temporal anomaly appeared, right in front of it, andout of it came a vessel idetified as USS Voyager NCC-74656, Intrepid class Starfleet vessel ,enemy of the Borg. Assimilate on contact.

The Borg Cube dutifully hailed the vessel.

**"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is Futile."**

The reply was unexpected, and not what the current designated Captain would have been predicted to send. A humanoid male voice, accent identified British.

"Oops. Ah. _Bollocks_."


	6. The Boy With A Thorn In His Side

The Doctor stared at the screen, and at the Borg cube. His face was blank, but Martha knew him well enough to say that he was upset.

"We're sixteen light years from where we were at the start," Harry Kim reported from OPS. "Time indicates that we've been gone three days."

"And in three days, a Borg cube shows up," Janeway finished, angered. "Raise shields, arm all weapons."

"Won't work," the Doctor said. "Sorry, I'm so sorry."

"Shut up," Janeway snapped. "This is your fault anyway."

"Yes," the Doctor replied, solemnly, "yes it is. And if I caused this mess, then, logically, I'm the one who ought to fix it."

He pressed a button on Harry Kims console before Janeway could say another word, and on the screen, an image of the Borg Hive appeared.

"We are the Borg," the collective voice began at once.

"Yeah, yeah, head it all before," the Doctor snarled. "Look, I'm the Doctor."

The Collective said nothing.

"Time Lord. Time traveller. Two hearts. Gallifrey. TARDIS. Take your pick."

**"Doctor,"** the Collective said suddenly, cold and menacing as always, precise, but quick. **"You will surrender yourself or we will annihilate _Voyager_.**"

"Oh yeah, sure, surrender myself, absolutely," the Doctor smiled. "Got it. Coming now."

"Lower shields and surrender," the Collective ordered.

"Sure," the Doctor smiled, but Janeway walked up to him, shock on her face.

"Are you insane?!" she said, her voice a screeching whisper.

"Trust me," the Doctor smiled.

"Sorry," Martha said, from one side of the bridge, "but who are the Borg?"

"Oh, just a nasty remnant of the Caeliar," the Doctor said, grimacing. "Nasty, nasty remnant slash offshoot slash disgusting perversion. Think of the Cybermen, but without the full metal jacket. Love that movie," he added with a grin.

"They also assimilate people into their shared consciousness," Janeway said, her voice hard. "You want to commit suicide, I'll give you a phaser – but this…"

"I'm not committing suicide," the Doctor countered. "I'm just helping."

He grinned, deactivated the shields, and was gone in a flash.

"I've raised the shields again," Tuvok said. "No Borg transport detected on any decks."

"He's nuts," Tom Paris postulated. Martha looked at the cube, and suddenly, a smile, soft and small, was on her face.

"No," she said. "He's the Doctor."

--

He was surrounded by Borg drones. That was the first thing he noticed.

"Hello!" he yelled, grinning at the lot of them. Before he could launch into his usual rhetoric, though, they came for him, and injection tubules pierced his neck. He was mildly miffed - he'd been hoping to launch into the rhetoric.

Ah well.

He closed his eyes, and let them all in.

--

He had been gone for several minutes, and they had heard nothing.

"Captain," Tuvok began, "I highly suggest that we vacate the area. This vessel has been disabled but we have no idea for how long."

"It's in perfect condition," Harry Kim pointed out. "We leave, it might follow."

"Obviously, the Doctor has somehow paralysed the vessel from within," Seven postulated.

"Can he do that?" Chakotay asked.

"Time Lords have extraordinary mental prowess," Seven noted. "As I have already said, he has once before faced the Borg, and escaped assimilation. Logically, he could do so again."

Martha wasn't listening. It didn't matter what these people were saying – all that mattered was that the Doctor was gone.

"Captain," Harry Kim put in, his voice sharp with anticipation. "The Borg are hailing!"

Suddenly, a Borg chamber, spacious and empty, appeared on the screen. Then, to everyone's great surprise, guitar music started. Martha's eyes widened in recognition – this was one of her favourite songs!

Then the Doctor, still in his suit, his face pale, led a group of about fifteen Borg onto the screen, doing an exaggerated march/dance in time with the music. The they stopped, facing the screen, and the Doctor pointed a finger at the assembled bridge crew.

_"#The boy with a thorn in his side!"_ he sang. _"#Behind the hatred there lies a murderous desire… for l-l-love…"_

Then the assembled drones began a sequence of movements in time with the music, and to everyone's great surprise, so did Seven of Nine. When the singing began again, a second later, she was singing too.

_"#How can they look into my eyes, and still they don't believe me? _

_#How can they hear me say these words, and still they don't believe me?"_

And then, to everyone's shock, Seven pointed with both her arms, then spun to face the wall, then threw her arms out in time with the next words.

_"#And if they don't believe me now, will they ever believe me?"_

And the Doctor echoed the movement with the next line.

_"#And if they don't believe me now, will the ever believe me? Oh noooo…"_

Tom Paris turned, and a grin of enormous proportions was on his face.

"I know this song!" he shouted, as they began the same verse again. "It's from nineteen eighties Earth!"

"I _love_ this song!" Martha shouted over him.

"What does it take to shut them up?" Harry asked.

_"#And if they don't believe us now, will they ever believe us?"_ the Doctor and the Borg asked.

_"#And when you want to live, how d'you start, where d'you go, who d'you need to know?"_ Seven replied.

And then the dancing continued as the words dissolved into random "oh" noises. Janeway laughed out loud, as the Doctor smiled at the screen, winked, and then vanished in a green light, only to beam straight onto the bridge. He grinned again, and nodded to Tom Paris, who pressed in the command to go, just as the Borg began another song.

--

"Well, Doctor," Janeway said, smiling, as he stood on the threshold of his ship, "what can I say? Thank you for the most unusual log entry I'm ever going to enter?"

"That'd just about cover it," the Doctor smiled back.

"Thanks for not putting us in a cell," Martha added.

The rest of the crew had said their farewells, and it was down to these last three people now. And soon, Janeway knew, she would be alone in the cargo bay.

"Now, Captain," the Doctor added. "I need you to listen to me for a moment, because what I am about to say is important."

"What?" Janeway asked.

"When Seven of Nine tells you to avoid the Borg ship," the Doctor said, serious and grim, "listen to her. I promise you, just listen to her. You will not regret it. And you will regret it a great deal if you ignore me."

"Should you be meddling?" Janeway asked.

The Doctor smiled a grim smile.

"Always," he said to her, sadly, "do what you're best at."

And with that, he and Martha Jones walked into the TARDIS, and passed out of Kathryn Janeway's life.

--

"What was all that about?" Martha asked. The Doctor said nothing, but set a different course, flicking a variety of switches and then stopping the ship. "Where are we…?"

The Doctor walked out of the door. Martha followed, still confused.

--

Admiral Janeway, sitting alone in her quarters on the USS _Einstein,_ thought back to the Doctor's warning as she travelled to the BOrg ship. Seven had told her not to, and the Doctor had told her to listen to her.

Then she thought of the Lady Q's warning.

"Seems like," she motioned to herself, "everybody says don't go to the Borg cube."

So logically, she added to herself silently, she decided that she ought not to go. Then she remembered something that the Doctor had said.

"Always do what you're best at."

And she decided.

She was best at ignoring warnings, and going in full steam ahead.

She smiled, more at peace than she had ever been, and accepted whatever was about to happen.

--

The Doctor crouched beside the grave of Admiral Kathryn Janeway, and smiled.

"Always do what you're best at," he repeated. "Knew I shouldn't've said that."

"She died?" Martha asked.

"Heroically," the Doctor added. "Doing what she did best – beating the Borg."

Martha smiled, and crouched down beside him. "You tried to change her history."

"I did."

"You meddled."

"I did."

"Should you have?"

"Nope."

Martha smiled again.

"Tell you what," she said. "Let's go visit her again."

The Doctor looked at her, and smiled back.

"Why not?"


End file.
